Why can my naked eye see the full moon clearly, but my phone camera struggles to capture the details? #Moon #Camera #Photography
Have you ever noticed how your naked eye can easily see the dark spots on the full moon, but when you try to take a picture with your phone camera, it just ends up looking like a bright ball of light? Let’s dive into why your phone camera struggles to capture the moon’s details like your eye can.
Naked Eye vs. Phone Camera: Why the Discrepancy?
– The Science Behind the Issue
– Limitations of Phone Camera Technology
– Tips for Capturing Clear Moon Photos
If you’ve ever wondered why your phone camera can’t seem to capture the moon as clearly as your naked eye, keep reading to uncover the reasons behind this phenomenon.
Your phone camera is trying to set exposure based on the whole sky. It is possible to get a picture of the moon that shows features, but it’s not a simple point and click. You’ll need to adjust the brightness/exposure for the picture.
For an iPhone, here’s a YouTube that shows you how: https://youtu.be/6Gu65xGI_bk
Camera phones are very wide angle, so they can get a selfie shot without needing for you to have 10 foot long arms. That’s not good for long distance things, and the Moon is very far away. Your mind’s ability to focus your gaze on the Moon and ignore all the surrounding black sky is the sort of thing that we’re still not quite able to do in software.
You camera is seeing the whole picture and going “wow, it’s really dark here, I’ll adjust the settings so the picture doesn’t come out too dark”. But, in that context, the Moon becomes a very bright thing that ends up overexposed.
Tap on the moon in the screen and your phone camera will adjust its exposure to align to the brightness of the moon so you can see contrast.
Your eye (and your brain) is a product of millions of years of evolution. Having a high dynamic range (being able to see both brightly lit and shadowy things at the same time) can be what allows you to both see the tiger about to jump you and the berries you need to eat.
Your phone camera is a purification of a few decades of development in which keeping costs low, file sizes manageable, and blurring at a minimum.
In short, your camera is pretty cool. But your eyes are awesome.
Believe it or not, millions of years of evolution can result in a pretty good camera and image processor (eye and brain).
Your eyes are essentially ~350Mp cameras with AI light attenuation. Your phone camera is likely around 13Mp, with no AI built in to determine what’s what.
Cameras have various settings. Learning how to use them will allow you to capture a wide range of scenes.
For a moon shot, you will want a fairly brief exposure(shutter 1/180s) with a low ISO. If your camera has a pro mode you can try to mess with the f-stop, too(f/8). If you can capture RAW, that’s best. You’ll likely still need to do some tweaking for best results.
A telephoto lense would also be helpful. Or a telescope.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography/hub/guides/moon-photography-camera-settings.html